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Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 390, 1061–1070 (2008)
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13774.x
A bright, dust-obscured, millimetre-selected galaxy beyond the Bullet
Cluster (1E0657−56)
G. W. Wilson,1 D. H. Hughes,2 I. Aretxaga,2 H. Ezawa,3 J. E. Austermann,1 S. Doyle,4
D. Ferrusca,5,2 I. Hern´andez-Curiel,2,6 R. Kawabe,3 T. Kitayama,7 K. Kohno,8
A. Kuboi,3 H. Matsuo,3 P. D. Mauskopf,4 Y. Murakoshi,7 A. Monta˜na,2 P. Natarajan,9
T. Oshima,3 N. Ota,10,11 T. A. Perera,1 J. Rand,1 K. S. Scott,1 K. Tanaka,8 M. Tsuboi,10
C. C. Williams,1 N. Yamaguchi3 and M. S. Yun1
1 Department
of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
´
Nacional de Astrof´ısica, Optica
y Electr´onica, Tonantzintla, Aptdo. Postal 51 y 216, 72000 Puebla, Pue., Mexico
3 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 3YB
5 Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley 94720-7300, USA
6 Centro de Radioastronom´ıa y Astrof´ısica, Universidad Nacional Aut´
onoma de M´exico, Aptdo. Postal 72-3 (Xangari), 58089 Morelia, Mexico
7 Department of Physics, Toho University, Funabashi, Chiba 274-8510, Japan
8 Institute of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015, Japan
9 Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-208120, USA
10 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan
11 Max-Planck-Institut f¨
ur extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany
2 Instituto
ABSTRACT
Deep 1.1 mm continuum observations of 1E0657−56 (the ‘Bullet Cluster’) taken with the
millimeter-wavelength camera AzTEC on the 10-m Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE), have revealed an extremely bright (S1.1 mm = 15.9 mJy) unresolved source. This
source, MMJ065837−5557.0, lies close to a maximum in the density of underlying mass distribution, towards the larger of the two interacting clusters as traced by the weak-lensing analysis
of Clowe et al. Using optical–infrared (IR) colours, we argue that MMJ065837−5557.0 lies at
a redshift of z = 2.7 ± 0.2. A lensing-derived mass model for the Bullet Cluster shows a critical
line (caustic) of magnification within a few arcsec of the AzTEC source, sufficient to amplify
the intrinsic millimetre-wavelength flux of the AzTEC galaxy by a factor of 20. After subtraction of the foreground cluster emission at 1.1 mm due to the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect,
and correcting for the magnification, the rest-frame far-IR luminosity of MMJ065837−5557.0
is ≤1012 L , characteristic of a luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG). We explore various scenarios to explain the colours, morphologies and positional offsets between the potential optical
and IR counterparts, and their relationship with MMJ065837−5557.0. Until higher resolution
and more sensitive (sub)millimetre observations are available, the detection of background
galaxies close to the caustics of massive lensing clusters offers the only opportunity to study
this intrinsically faint millimetre-galaxy population.
Key words: galaxies: high-redshift – galaxies: starburst.
1 I N T RO D U C T I O N
A high redshift (z 1) strongly evolving submillimetre-galaxy
population (hereafter SMGs) has been identified in a series of continuum imaging surveys during the last decade. The most significant
E-mail: [email protected]
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2008 The Authors. Journal compilation surveys have been undertaken with Submillimetre Common-User
Bolometer Array (SCUBA) at 850 μm (Coppin et al. (2006) and references therein), MAMBO at 1.2 mm (Greve et al. 2004; Bertoldi
et al. 2007), BOLOCAM (Laurent et al. 2005) at 1.1 mm, and more
recently with AzTEC at 1.1 mm (Scott et al. 2008). These collective submillimetre surveys, together with comprehensive multiwavelength imaging and spectroscopic follow-up spanning X-ray to
radio wavelengths, have demonstrated that SMGs are representative
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Accepted 2008 July 29. Received 2008 July 24; in original form 2008 March 24
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G. W. Wilson et al.
Figure 1. AzTEC image of MMJ065837−5557.0. The colour bar shows
the shading in units of signal-to-noise of a point-source detection. The
underlying noise in the map varies by 4.6 per cent across the portion of the
image shown. The faint diffuse emission to the west of the point source is
dominated by the extended SZE signal from the Bullet Cluster (Ezawa et al.
in preparation), however, due to the point-source filtering of the map, no
morphological information about the SZE should be taken from this figure.
2007, AzTEC was mounted on the ASTE telescope, a 10 m diameter
antenna located on Pampa La Bola, near Cerro Chajnantor in Chile.
ASTE provides AzTEC with an angular resolution of 30 arcsec
full width at half-maximum (FWHM). One season of observations
(2007 June–October) from this excellent high (∼4900 m) and dry
site in the Atacama Desert has been completed and another season
will begin in 2008 July.
The bright millimetre-wavelength source, shown in Fig. 1, was
found in our 202 arcmin2 AzTEC imaging survey of the Bullet
Cluster and its environment (Ezawa et al., in preparation). Observations were made by continuously scanning the telescope boresight
in azimuth and elevation in a modified Lissajous pattern centred
on 06h 58m 29.s 40, −55d 56m 42.s 0. The modified Lissajous pattern is
defined as a function of time, t, by
δAz = A sin at + B sin at/30
δEl = A sin bt + B sin bt/30
where A = 5.5 arcmin, B = 2 arcmin, a/b = 8/9, and δAz and
δEl are physical coordinates relative to the field centre. The actual
values of a and b are normalized to limit the peak telescope velocity
to 300 arcsec s−1 . A total of 61 maps of the cluster were completed,
each taking 41.7 min, and collectively yielding an equivalent total
on-source integration time of 193 s per 3 × 3 arcsec2 pixel. The data
are reduced and co-added using the standard AzTEC data analysis
pipeline with very similar techniques to those described in Scott
et al. (2008). The resultant map has an average point-source flux
error of 0.54 mJy over the inner 150 arcmin2 area. A full analysis of
the extended 1.1 mm Sunyaev–Zel’dovich emission of the cluster
and other point sources in the map will be presented in subsequent
papers.
2 A Z T E C / A S T E O B S E RVAT I O N S
AzTEC is a 144-element bolometric receiver currently tuned to
operate in the 1.1 mm atmospheric window (Wilson et al. 2008).
We have previously used AzTEC to complete a successful set of
observations of the submillimetre galaxy population in blank fields
from the 15 m diameter James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (e.g. Perera
et al. 2008; Scott et al. 2008; Austermann et al, in preparation). In
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2.1 Pointing corrections and source position
A small correction to the telescope pointing model is applied to all
observations of the Bullet Cluster field based on periodic observations of a bright point source, PKS 0537−441, with a 1.1 mm flux
of ∼5 Jy. We derived the correction by linearly interpolating the
pointing offsets measured from 4 × 4 arcmin2 maps of the point
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of a population of massive, dust enshrouded, optically faint galaxies undergoing significant star formation with rates 200 M yr−1 .
The median redshift of the bright SMG population, based on spectroscopic and photometric redshifts, is ∼2.5, with approximately
50 per cent of the population at 1.9 < z < 2.9 (Aretxaga et al. 2003;
Chapman et al. 2003, 2005; Pope et al. 2005; Aretxaga et al. 2007).
Scaling the observed flux densities of all SMGs with detections
in the above flux-limited surveys to 850 μm, the majority of the
population have been detected with flux densities of 2 < S850 μm <
12 mJy.
Making the connection between ultra-luminous SMGs and
their local analogs – presumably ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGS) and luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGS) – requires
either larger telescopes such as the Large Millimetre Telescope
(LMT) and the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) or using
the presence of foreground structure to amplify the faint background
galaxies. To date, the deepest SMG surveys have been conducted
towards lensing clusters that amplify an intrinsically fainter population of SMGs in the high-z universe (Smail, Ivison & Blain 1997;
Chapman et al. 2002; Cowie, Barger & Kneib 2002; Smail et al.
2002; Kneib et al. 2004; Knudsen et al. 2006). Imaging massive
clusters offer the advantages of amplification of the background
universe due to the gravitational potential of the cluster and, in
general, an increased effective resolution in the source plane (and
correspondingly decreased survey confusion limit). Unfortunately,
this same advantage for those studying faint background galaxies
comes at a cost to those interested in studying the clusters themselves using the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Effect (SZE). The amplified
(sub)millimetre-wavelength emission from members of the SMG
field population that are lensed by the large-scale cluster potential
and by the increased probability of galaxy–galaxy lensing along the
line of sight to the cluster, increases the likelihood of point-source
contamination of the SZE.
In this paper, we present the discovery of an extremely bright
millimetre-selected SMG (MMJ065837−5557.0) in the direction
of the massive X-ray luminous Bullet Cluster (z = 0.297). The 1.1
millimetre-wavelength observations were made with the AzTEC
instrument (Wilson et al. 2008) on the Atacama Submillimeter
Telescope Experiment (ASTE, Ezawa et al. 2004). These AzTEC
data were undertaken as part of a larger project to trace the evolution in the surface density of SMGs towards overdense regions in
the low- and high-redshift Universe. Using archival Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) and Spitzer data, we identify potential optical and
infrared (IR) counterparts to the AzTEC source. The photometric
colours, and the small positional offset of the AzTEC source and
the optical–IR counterparts from the critical magnification line derived from cluster mass models strongly support the suggestion that
MMJ065837−5557.0 is a moderately luminous high-z galaxy that
has been lensed and amplified by the massive foreground Bullet
Cluster.
Throughout this paper, we adopt the following cosmological
model: a Hubble constant H 0 = 72 km s−1 Mpc−1 , and density parameters M = 0.3 and = 0.7.
A bright mm-galaxy beyond the Bullet Cluster
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Table 1. Derived parameters for MMJ065837−5557.0. The absolute calibration error of the flux density is given in parentheses.
Flux density
SZE-corrected flux density
RA centroid position
Dec. centroid position
Source FWHM (RA)
Source FWHM (Dec.)
Position angle of elongation
reduced χ 2 / of fit
15.9 ± 0.5 (±1.3) mJy
13.5 ± 0.5 (±1.0) mJy
06:58:37.31 ± 0.02 s
−55:57:01.5 ± 0.32 arcsec
36 ± 1.3 arcsec
32 ± 1.2 arcsec
34◦ ± 8◦
0.94
position angle of the ellipse, and an arbitrary constant offset. Fitted
parameters and their statistical errors are given in Table 1.
Figure 2. Measured positional offsets determined from maps of five highredshift radio galaxies (squares) and by stacking radio-detected AzTEC
sources in the GOODS-S field (×). Error bars represent the 1 σ uncertainty
in the centroid of the 1.1 mm flux of the radio galaxies. The red thick cross
denotes the mean offset of the fields with bar lengths equal to the square
root of the weighted variance of the set of radio galaxy offsets.
source observed every 2 h. Pointing measurements always bracketed observations of the cluster. Our resulting pointing uncertainty,
as measured from stacking the 1.1 mm flux at the locations of 212
known radio sources in our map of the GOODS-S field (using the
technique described in Scott et al. (2008)) is 4.8 arcsec rms. This is
a random pointing error which broadens the point spread function
(PSF) of the instrument by less than 0.5 arcsec and suppresses the
point source response by an amount that is negligible compared to
the photometric error.
To identify the correct optical/IR counterpart to
MMJ065837−5557.0 we next check for any systematic offset in the pointing, which could be mechanical in nature or could
be due to environmental influences on the telescope at the time
of the observation. In either case, systematic offsets are likely to
vary from field to field. Without a known millimetre-bright object
in our Bullet Cluster map to use as a pointing reference (or a
sufficient number of fainter objects spread throughout the field
to allow a stacking analysis) there is no way to determine any
astrometric offset specific to this field. Instead, we estimate our
overall astrometric uncertainty as the variance in residual pointing
offsets (after the corrections applied from our observations of PKS
0537−441) measured from similar maps of five high-redshift radio
galaxies, along with the offsets measured from the stacking analysis
from the GOODS-S field. Fig. 2 shows the measured offsets in
right ascension and declination (physical coordinates) from these
data. The thick red cross at RA, Dec. = (0. 10, 0. 18) shows
the mean offset and 1σ errors (3. 24 in RA and 2. 61 in Dec.),
that is consistent with no systematic specific offset. Hence, in the
analysis and discussion that follows, we apply no offset correction
to the derived centroid of the point source. We assume that the
standard deviation of systematic pointing offsets measured in other
AzTEC maps, taken in a similar manner to the Bullet Cluster data,
is representative of any positional offsets.
To get the most accurate centroid position for
MMJ065837−5557.0, we fit a two-dimensional Gaussian to
the unfiltered image of the source. In addition to the source position
we fit for an amplitude, the semi-major and semi-minor axes and
C
The AzTEC Bullet Cluster data are calibrated using Uranus as a
primary calibrator and adopting the technique described in Wilson
et al. (2008). Beammaps of Uranus were made twice each night.
A linearly interpolated calibration factor is applied to Bullet Cluster observations taken between Uranus beammaps. The calibration
factor derived from the nearest Uranus beammap in time is used for
Bullet Cluster observations taken before the first Uranus beammap
of the evening and for Bullet Cluster observations taken following
the last Uranus beammap of the evening. Since most of the science observations took place following the last Uranus beammap
of the evening, we estimate an upper limit to our overall calibration uncertainty from the standard deviation in reported fluxes from
31 pointing observations of PKS 0537−441, which is 6 per cent.
PKS 0537−411 is known to be a strongly varying source (Romero,
Combi & Colomb 1994) and so this upper limit should be considered
robust. Adding this in quadrature with the 5 per cent uncertainty in
the brightness temperature of Uranus at 1.1 mm (Griffin & Orton
1993) gives a total calibration error of 8 per cent.
We use the two-dimensional Gaussian fit described above to estimate the flux density of MMJ065837−5557.0 in the absence of
any foreground SZE emission from the cluster. Since the AzTEC
map has been Wiener filtered to optimally identify point sources,
an unknown degree of attenuation has been applied to the extended
SZE signal. Thus the fitted point-source flux density, allowing for
a lower limit on the contribution of SZE, is S1.1 mm = 13.5 ± 0.5
(±1.0) mJy where the first error is the statistical error and the second
(in parentheses) is the error in absolute calibration.
The fitted size of MMJ065837−5557.0 is larger and slightly
elongated compared to the beam size measured by performing the same fit to the 31 observations of the point-source
PKS0537−441 (FWHM = 29 ± 1.2 arcsec), suggesting that the
flux of MMJ065837−5557.0 may be due to a close pair, or possibly triplet (see Section 3.5), of confused sources. Until we have
performed a more detailed subtraction of the SZE emission, or undertaken higher resolution observations, we cannot rule out that the
flux from MMJ065837−5557.0 is from a single point source.
3 DISCUSSION
A comparison with the measured surface density of SMGs detected
towards wide-area blank fields (e.g. Coppin et al. 2006; Scott et al.
2008, and references therein) is sufficient to demonstrate how unexpected is the detection of such a bright source. Although the
submillimetre source counts are unconstrained at these brightness
levels, a wide-area survey of 1 deg2 is necessary before such
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2.2 Calibration and flux determination
1064
G. W. Wilson et al.
optical signatures (i.e. arcs) of strong lensing, magnification of this
source and amplification of the (sub)millimetre fluxes is a natural
explanation of the high apparent brightness. Due to the low spatial resolution of these single-dish ASTE observations (30 arcsec
FWHM at 1.1 mm) and the astrometric uncertainty, however, we
must consider and dismiss other alternatives for the source of the
millimetre emission including Galactic stars, potential confusion
with foreground Galactic cirrus or galaxies intrinsic to the cluster
at z = 0.297.
3.1 Rejecting a Galactic origin for MMJ065837−5557.0
an intrinsically bright object could be expected to be discovered
in a random survey. Two other similarly bright sources have been
found in previous SCUBA surveys: J02399−0136, with an observed
850 μm flux density of 26 ± 3 mJy due to the amplification by the
massive cluster Abell 370 at z = 0.37 (Ivison et al. 1998); and
the high-redshift radio galaxy 8C1909+722 which shows extended
submillimetre emission and has an integrated flux of 34.9 ± 3 mJy
at 850 μm (Stevens et al. 2003).
Given that MMJ065837−5557.0 has been detected near the peak
in the weak-lensing map associated with the more massive of the
two merging clusters (see Fig. 3), and that the Bullet Cluster shows
Figure 4. Left-hand panel: HST ACS image (606W filter) showing a field of 23 × 23 arcsec2 centred on the centroid position (shown as a red cross) of
MMJ065837−5557.0. The dimension of the cross indicates the ±1σ positional uncertainty of 3 arcsec for MMJ065837−5557.0, which corresponds to a
physical distance of ∼22 kpc for a galaxy at 2 < z < 3. The dashed lines, shown only on the HST and IRAC 8.0 μm images, bisecting the two red-galaxy
systems (A/C and B/D), and close to the position of the elliptical galaxy (E – a spectroscopically confirmed member of the Bullet Cluster), are the approximate
locations of the critical line of infinite magnification for a galaxy at z = 2.7 (adapted from Gonzalez et al. 2008). A stellar object, S, is also identified. The
optical galaxies A and B, enclosed within rectangles, are two candidates for highly lensed background sources that may be high-z counterparts to the AzTEC
source MMJ065837−5557.0. The IRAC 3.6 μm (middle panel) and 8.0 μm (right-hand panel) images of the same field as the HST image are shown with
optical contours overlaid. Clear colour differences and spatial displacements, given in Table 1, are seen between the optical components A and B, and the
IR components C and D (shown as circles). Bradaˇc et al. (2006) present an alternative mass model in which the critical line passes closer to object A. It
requires higher resolution (sub)millimetre observations with ALMA to confirm which of these components (if any) is the counterpart to MMJ065837−5557.0.
Optical–IR spectroscopy are required to show whether the galaxy systems A/C and B/D are multiple lensed images of the same background galaxy with
heavy patchy dust obscuration, or if components A, B, C and D are separate galaxies involved in strong interactions that stimulate an episode of luminous star
formation, or alternatively if they are physically unconnected galaxies in our line of sight.
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Figure 3. The weak-lensing map (green contours), from Clowe et al. (2006)
of the Bullet Cluster overlaid on an optical image that shows the two merging
clusters of galaxies, with the less-massive ‘Bullet’ subcluster to the west
of the main cluster. The white contours towards the peaks of the mass
distribution indicate their positional uncertainty. The position of the bright
AzTEC source MMJ065837−5557.0, which lies close to the peak of the
more massive cluster, is shown as a white cross. The white circle indicates
the scale of the AzTEC beam with 30 arcsec diameter FWHM. The full
AzTEC map is significantly larger than the area of the optical image shown
here.
Within a 6.5 arcsec radius, 2σ positional error circle of the AzTEC
source there is a compact point source at the resolution of HST (object S in Fig. 4). The object is identified as a star in the Naval Observatory Merged Astrometric Dataset (NOMAD). S has a R-band
magnitude of 18.8, which corresponds to a flux density of 0.19 mJy.
Assuming a blackbody photospheric spectrum (T eff ∼ 4500 K) and
that there is no extended circumstellar dust envelope, which is consistent with the declining flux density of object S from 3.6 to 8 μm
in the corresponding Spitzer imaging (see Fig. 3), then S cannot be
responsible for the 13.5 mJy emission at 1.1 mm. For completeness,
we considered the possibility that the ‘stellar object’ S is an uncatalogued quasar at an unknown redshift. In the absence of an optical
spectrum, we derive the IR colours of source S: S8.0 /S4.5 < 0.40,
S5.8 /S3.6 ∼ 1.7. Source S is bluer than a typical IR active galactic
nucleus (AGN) and falls outside of the region of the colour–colour
diagram shared by SMGs and AGN Yun et al. (2008). We therefore
reject source S as the source of the millimetre flux.
At a Galactic latitude of b ∼ −21◦ the foreground dust emission
associated with Galactic cirrus is moderately weak in the vicinity of
the Bullet Cluster, with a 100 μm surface brightness of ∼5 MJy sr−1 .
Adopting the measured 60/100 μm cirrus colour temperature of
∼20 K (and a dust emissivity-index β = 2), we estimate that the
contribution to the measured AzTEC 1.1 mm flux density is ∼1 mJy
in the 30 arcsec FWHM beam. This estimate is sensitive to the exact
temperature of the cirrus, and can increase to 5 mJy for colder cirrus
A bright mm-galaxy beyond the Bullet Cluster
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Figure 5. SED of the z = 0.297 cluster member galaxy E (Fig. 4) near the
MMJ065837−5557.0 position centroid. The measured photometry data for
the galaxy E are shown as filled squares, and they are compared with three
elliptical galaxy SED templates by Polletta et al. (2007) with different ages
(2, 5 and 13 Gyr old shown as dotted, dashed and solid lines, respectively).
The two 3σ upper limits from the IRAS 60 and 100 μm bands are also
shown. The Arp 220 SED by Polletta et al. is normalized to the 1.1 mm
AzTEC measurement (filled circle) for comparison.
(T = 15 K). However, the spatial filter applied during the AzTEC
data reduction suppresses any extended foreground emission on
scales much larger than the point source response and therefore acts
as a local sky subtraction at the position of MMJ065837−5557.0.
Unless the measured power due to cirrus is dominated by emission
on angular scales smaller than 30 arcsec, foreground Galactic cirrus
is unlikely to be responsible for the bright point-source emission of
MMJ065837−5557.0. For the reasons given above, we confidently
reject a Galactic origin for MMJ065837−5557.0.
3.2 Rejecting a cluster-member origin for
MMJ065837−5557.0
The optical galaxy nearest to the AzTEC centroid is an elliptical
galaxy, which is a spectroscopically confirmed member of the Bullet
Cluster. Located only 1.5 arcsec from the AzTEC source location,
this B = 21.58 elliptical galaxy at z = 0.2958 (Barrena et al. 2002)
is a natural candidate for a counterpart to the 1.1 mm continuum
emission. It is also the nearest and the brightest Infrared Array
Camera (IRAC) source located within the 1σ positional uncertainty
of MMJ065837−5557.0.
As shown in Fig. 5, both the optical and the IRAC near-IR data of
the galaxy are completely consistent with the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a typical elliptical galaxy, dominated by a predominantly old stellar population. The predicted 1.1 mm flux density for
such an elliptical galaxy, however, is nearly 4 orders of magnitudes
smaller than that measured by AzTEC. However, major mergers
of two gas-rich galaxies that lead to the ULIRG phenomenon are
also known to produce an elliptical-like stellar remnant (Hibbard
& Yun 1999). We explore the possibility that this elliptical galaxy
may host a substantial and compact reservoir of cold gas and dust
by plotting the SED of Arp 220 (a prototypical ULIRG) scaled to
match the measured 1.1 mm flux density of MMJ065837−5557.0.
The discrepancy between the observed flux density and the scaled
Arp 220 SED is only a factor of a few in the optical bands, but the
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3.3 MMJ065837−5557.0 – a highly magnified, high-redshift
starburst galaxy
The Bullet Cluster is a high-velocity merger (∼4500 km s−1 ) of
two massive systems (the main cluster and the ‘bullet’ subcluster)
of galaxies taking place in the plane of the sky. Although there is
continued discussion regarding the exact mass ratio (M main /M bullet )
of the two components ranging from 3:1 (Nusser 2008) to 10:1
(Barrena et al. 2002), the total dark-matter halo cluster mass is
constrained to the range ∼0.8–2 × 1015 M (Clowe et al. 2006;
Vikhlinin et al. 2006). MMJ065837−5557.0 is within 15 arcsec
of a peak in the underlying mass distribution of the main galaxy
cluster and so a plausible scenario is that we are detecting amplified
emission of a background source close to this position. Furthermore,
the lensing models of Mehlert et al. (2001) and Gonzalez et al.
(2008) show that critical lines (caustics) of infinite magnification for
galaxies at z = 3.24 and 2.7, respectively, pass within a few arcsec of
the centroid position of MMJ065837−5557.0 (Fig. 4). Thus, strong
magnification of a background submillimetre galaxy is our preferred
explanation for the unusual brightness of MMJ065837−5557.0. We
now turn to the archival HST and IRAC data to identify the most
likely counterparts of the millimetre-wavelength emission.
Fig. 4 shows a close-up view of the HST and IRAC fields near
MMJ065837−5557.0, along with the approximate position of the
lensing caustic line of infinite magnification. Having ruled out the
elliptical galaxy closest to the AzTEC centroid as the source of
the strong millimetre wavelength emission, we focus on the two
reddest IRAC sources (labelled C and D in the IRAC 8 μm image
of Fig. 4) that lie within the uncertainty of the AzTEC centroid
position, and that are also bisected by the caustic line. The IRAC
colours of objects C and D (see Table 2) are similar to those of
dusty, optically obscured, high-redshift SMGs. Objects C and D
also appear to be the same two galaxies identified by Bradaˇc et al.
(2006) as candidates for galaxies at z > 6 on the basis of their
IR colours. We argue in Section 3.4 that objects C and D lie at
significantly lower redshifts, z ∼ 2.7, a conclusion independently
reached by Gonzalez et al. (2008).
A comparison of the HST image at 606 nm and Spitzer images at 3.6 and 8.0 μm shows that two optical sources of different
1
Obtained using ADDSCAN/SCANPI process available through
NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu).
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difference grows quickly and substantially at λ > 1 μm. The absence of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon feature in the IRAC
8 μm band can be interpreted as evidence that the elliptical galaxy
does not contain a large reservoir of cold gas and dust. This galaxy
is not detected by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS), and we
show the 3σ upper limits of 120 and 480 mJy in the IRAS 60 and
100 μm bands1 in Fig. 5. An Arp 220-like SED that can account
for the measured 1.1 mm flux density can be ruled out with >10σ
significance. Therefore, we confidently reject the possibility that
the elliptical galaxy is the origin of the extreme 1.1 mm continuum
flux density of MMJ065837−5557.0.
We cannot confidently rule out other, more exotic alternative
possibilities as the source of the bright millimetre emission such as
nearby cooling-flow galaxies or exceptionally strong line emitters.
As described below we instead focus on the most plausible explanation: two red IRAC sources (identified by Bradaˇc et al. 2006 and
further studied by Gonzalez et al. 2008) representing a background
galaxy or galaxies magnified by the Bullet Cluster lens.
G. W. Wilson et al.
1066
Table 2. Optical and IR photometry of galaxies within the positional uncertainty of MMJ0659−557. Sources A–E refer to those objects
identified in Fig. 4. All fluxes are given in μJy. Redshifts with superscripts p denote photometric-redshift estimates (this paper), and with
s denotes a spectroscopic redshift from Barrena et al. (2002).
Source
Redshift
A
B
C
D
E
–
–
2.7 ± 0.2p
2.7 ± 0.2p
0.297s
606 nm
775 nm
0.8 ± 0.05
0.6 ± 0.05
1.0 ± 0.03
1.3 ± 0.03
63 ± 4
80 ± 4
3.6 μm
4.5 μm
5.8 μm
8.0 μm
Notes
27 ± 1
25 ± 2
192 ± 12
44 ± 1
41 ± 1
135 ± 9
57 ± 7
80 ± 8
112 ± 5
54 ± 2
100 ± 2
75 ± 4
After E subtraction
After E subtraction
3.4 IR photometry, colours and photometric redshifts
The difference in resolution between optical HST and IR Spitzer observations is significant. While the two extended red Spitzer sources
(C and D) are clearly seen in the original 8 μm IRAC images, the
halo of the elliptical galaxy (object E in Fig. 4) makes it non-trivial
to measure their IR colours. Furthermore it is difficult to unambiguously determine if the IR emission of source C is associated with
the optical emission of A, and similarly the IR source D with that
of the optical source B. To minimize the contamination of the elliptical galaxy on the extracted fluxes of sources A, B, C and D, we
model the elliptical galaxy using a two-dimensional light-profile fit
to the high-resolution HST image at 606 nm. A subtraction of this
model from the corresponding 775 nm data did not reveal any significant residuals at the position of the elliptical. This same model
was then smoothed and scaled to the resolution and peak intensity
of the elliptical galaxy emission in all four Spitzer IRAC bands and
subtracted from each IRAC image, producing smooth residuals at
the centre of the elliptical that matched the surrounding sky values. The optical fluxes at 606 and 775 nm for sources A and B
were obtained using 1.5 and a 1.0 arcsec radius aperture photometry, respectively, and adopting sky values estimated from concentric
0.5 arcsec width rings, after masking any prominent objects, like
star S. The IR fluxes for sources C and D at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 μm
were extracted via aperture photometry after subtraction of the elliptical galaxy, as explained above. Star S was also modelled by a PSF,
scaled and subtracted from the images to produce smooth profiles of
the underlying object D, without creating large residuals in its structure. Sky values were estimated from areas without contamination
of faint objects within concentric 3–8 pixel rings multiple times,
and 2.5–3.0 pixel (3.0–3.6 arcsec) radial aperture photometry was
performed for each estimated sky value, and corrected to account
for flux losses using the PSF model corrections of the IRAC Data
Handbook version 3.0. No attempt was made to formally measure
the errors introduced in the photometry due to the elliptical and star
subtractions, since the limited resolution of the IRAC images is not
sufficient to constrain subpixel positional accuracies. Since both C
and D lie outside the centroid of E and S, these additional errors are
C
Figure 6. Colour–colour plot of IRAC-detected submillimetre galaxies in
the GOODS-N (Pope et al. 2006), SHADES SXDF (Clements et al. 2008)
and Lockman–Hole fields (Dye et al. 2008) with secure spectroscopic redshifts, represented as diamonds, where the hue of the symbols is proportional
to the redshifts. SXDF850.21, at S8.0 μm /S4.5 μm = 8.27, S5.8 μm /S3.6 μm =
1.33, zspec = 0.044 is out of bounds of the represented plot, but has been included in the analysis. The squares represent the two IR bright components
(C and D) that are possible counterparts at z ∼ 2.7 to MMJ065837−5557.0.
The lines represent the colour changes for three model SEDs of dusty galaxies (Siebenmorgen & Kr¨ugel 2007) placed at increasingly larger redshifts,
as indicated by the small labels.
estimated to be less than 10 per cent. All derived fluxes are listed in
Table 2.
Fig. 6 shows an IRAC colour–colour plot, S8.0 μm /S4.5μm versus
S5.8 μm /S3.6 μm , for IRAC-detected SMGs in the GOODS-N (Pope
et al. 2006), Subaru-XMM Deep Field (Clements et al. 2008), and
Lockman Hole (Dye et al. 2008) fields, along with the location of
sources C and D. Both sources have IR colours consistent with other
known SMGs.
A crude photometric redshift for MMJ065837−5557.0 can be
estimated, based on the IRAC photometry, using an empirical polynomial fit to the colours of similar galaxies. This technique has been
used successfully in the optical and IR for various galaxy populations (e.g. Connolly et al. 1995 and Pope et al. 2006). We adopt a
functional form z = a + σ bi log Si , where a and bi are coefficients
that are fit to the appropriate galaxy population (SMGs in this case),
and Si are the IRAC flux densities of the training galaxies at 3.6, 4.5,
5.8 and 8.0 μm. We fit our model to the IR colours of the 16 SMGs
with unambiguous single optical/IR counterparts, complete IRAC
photometry, and robust spectroscopic redshifts in the GOODS-N
and SCUBA Half Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) fields
(Pope et al. 2006; Dye et al. 2008; Clements et al. 2008). A bestfitting results in the relationship
z = 1.6393 + 3.9134 log(S5.8 /S3.6 ) − 2.3490 log(S8.0 /S4.5 ).
(1)
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morphologies (objects A and B in Fig. 4) lie ≤ 2 arcsec to the south
of the IR centroids of objects C and D, which are most clearly defined in the 8.0 μm image. A small positional offset of RA = −0. 4,
Dec. = 0. 0 was applied to the archival HST data to align it with
the IRAC image. The error in this offset, determined from the registration of stars detected in both fields, is insufficient to account
for the apparent separation of the IR and optical pairs of galaxies.
Before considering further the possibility of the association of the
IR sources C and D with the optical HST sources A and B, and
collectively all four sources with MMJ065837−5557.0, we present
an estimate of the photometric redshifts of the two IR sources.
A bright mm-galaxy beyond the Bullet Cluster
In order to test the accuracy of this photometric-redshift estimate for the SMG population we use a leave-one-out cross validation technique, where each member of the training-galaxy set
is systematically excluded from the fit, and then that best-fitting
solution is used to derive its photometric redshift. This ensures that
the accuracy of this photometric redshift technique is determined
independently of the galaxies used to derive it. Fig. 7 shows the
comparison of the spectroscopic redshifts of the training set to the
photometric redshifts derived from the IRAC colours. We estimate
the error in each photometric redshift by bootstrapping on the photometric errors in the colours. We find an average error between
photometric and spectroscopic redshifts of δz/(1 + z)
= 0.15 for
this technique. Although the accuracy of this method decreases as
the redshift increases, at least based on this small sample, there is
no apparent bias to it.
Using this technique, we find that both IR sources, C and D, have
photometric redshifts of 2.7 ± 0.2 where the uncertainty is derived
from the observed colours of the galaxies and bootstrapping on
their individual errorbars. This supports the arguments that they are
either multiply lensed images of the same source or two galaxies
separated (in the image plane) by ∼35 kpc and are undergoing an
interaction that stimulates star formation in dust-obscured regions.
3.5 Counterparts to MMJ065837−5557.0
We now explore a number of scenarios regarding the possible associations of the optical and IR sources A, B, C and D (Fig. 4).
Scenario 1: Gradients of patchy dust obscuration (A = C
and B = D). If we assume that the optical HST and IR Spitzer
emission of components A and C, and similarly for components
B and D, arises from different and distinct regions of the same
galaxy, and that the galaxies A/C and B/D are both at redshifts z ∼
2.7 (Section 3.4), then the physical separations of the IR and optically emitting regions in each galaxy are <16 kpc in the plane of
the lens. We consider how this apparent separation decreases in the
source plane. Using previously published mass models derived from
strong lensing data alone (Mehlert et al. 2001) along with combined
strong and weak-lensing reconstruction for the cluster 1E0657−558
(Bradaˇc et al. 2006), the image plane is mapped back to the source
plane using the inversion software LENSTOOL (Jullo et al. 2007). We
model the Bullet Cluster as two large-scale smooth potentials, and
include the elliptical galaxy, a confirmed cluster member, as an ad
C
ditional small-scale local perturber. Following Bradaˇc et al. (2006),
the main cluster is modelled with a surface mass density (or convergence) κ(r) ∝ r−1.2 and velocity dispersion σ ∼ 1400 km s−1 ,
whilst the subcluster has a slightly shallower slope of κ (r) ∝
r−0.9 and σ ∼ 1200 km s−1 . Typically the local amplification,
κ 2 − γ 2 , where γ is the shear, provides an comparable expansion
of the image plane compared to the source plane. In the vicinity of
the MMJ065837−5557.0, however, the shear field of the cluster is
perpendicular to the elongation of the cluster. Hence, adopting the
above composite mass model, the ∼2 arcsec separation of the pairs
of optical and IR galaxies (A/C and B/D) in the image plane is reduced only by a factor of 0.5–0.75, or a separation of 1.0–1.5 arcsec
(10–13 kpc), in the source plane.
It is therefore possible that the galaxies identified in the HST image are the same as those detected by Spitzer IRAC, that is A = C
and B = D, implying that the thermal emission at millimetre wavelengths arises from distant, dusty starburst galaxies with a gradient
of heavy, but patchy obscuration. In support of this argument, recent
K-band imaging of the same composite systems by Gonzalez et al.
(2008) shows that the centroid of the 2.2 μm emission lies between
the optical HST and longer wavelength 3–8 μm Spitzer data.
Scenario 2: Interacting pairs of red and blue galaxies (A =
C and B = D). Alternatively, the HST and Spitzer data may be
indicating that we have two close pairs of strongly interacting or
merging galaxies, in which each pair contains an optical galaxy and
an IR dust-obscured starburst. The observed separation of sources
A and C (and equivalently B and D), that is ∼8 arcsec, corresponds
to ≤30 kpc in source plane. The association of composite (possibly interacting) systems, red galaxies and blue companions, with
the environments of SMGs is not uncommon (Ivison et al. 2002).
The Antennae galaxy provides an excellent local example of the
complex wavelength-dependent morphology in a merging galaxy
with spatially distinct regions of luminous optical emission from
young stars, and even greater luminosity at millimetre wavelengths
originating from a young starburst population that remains heavily embedded in the dusty, gas-rich interstellar medium (see for
example Whitmore et al. 1999; Xu et al. 2000; Wang et al. 2004).
Scenario 3: Two multiple lensed images of a background
galaxy (A = B = C = D). The final scenario that we consider,
which is consistent with the cluster lens model, is one in which the
pairs of optical and IR galaxies are bisected by a critical line of
infinite magnification. In this case, objects A, B, C and D may all
be multiple lensed images of the same background source. Similar examples are presented by Kneib et al. (2004) and Borys et al.
(2004) in the clusters Abell 2218 (z = 0.17) and MS0451.6−0305
(z = 0.55), respectively. In these cases bright submillimetre sources
detected by SCUBA (9–17 mJy at 850 μm) are associated with multiple images of highly magnified, multi-component optical and IR
galaxies which are bisected by the critical lines. After demagnification, the intrinsic fluxes of these particular SMGs are 0.4–0.8 mJy at
850 μm, making them some of the faintest SMGs detected to date.
An argument against the optical sources A and B being multiple
images of the same background galaxy is that they have different morphologies in the high-resolution HST observations (Fig. 4).
Source A shows more extended and elongated emission than source
B, which appears to consist of two compact emitting areas. However, the presence of the cluster-member elliptical galaxy (source E
in Fig. 4) is able to provide sufficient gravitational mass to distort the
resolved optical images and create additional magnification of the
background source (e.g. Natarajan & Kneib 1997). It is not necessary therefore that the two lensed images of the background source
should have identical magnifications and morphologies. Given the
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Figure 7. Photometric versus spectroscopic redshift of submillimetre galaxies in the GOODS-N and SHADES fields. The photometric redshift for each
galaxy has been calculated using an empirical fit to the colours of SMGs,
following the method described in Section 3.3. The dispersion of values
between spectroscopic and photometric redshifts is δz/(1 + z)
= 0.15.
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3.6 Contribution of the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect to the
observed flux of MMJ065837−5557.0
Two classes of effects can serve to increase the measured brightness
of detected point sources: multiplicative effects (lensing) and additive contributions to the flux due to millimetre-wavelength emission
along the line of sight to the source. MMJ065837−5557.0 clearly
suffers from both. In this section we describe the non-negligible
millimetre-wavelength emission due to the thermal SunyaevZel’dovich Effect (SZE, Sunyaev & Zeldovich 1970, 1972) that
is added to the intrinsic lensed emission of MMJ065837−5557.0.
The thermal SZE is produced by inverse-Compton scattering of the
cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons off electrons in the
hot and dense intercluster medium (ICM) of clusters. We do not
consider the contribution from the weaker kinetic SZE that is due
to the bulk motion (velocity) of the cluster plasma with respect to
the CMB reference frame. Consequently the thermal SZE is a dominant source of secondary fluctuations on the surface brightness of
the CMB on small angular scales, less than a few arcminutes.
Unable to perform a multi-wavelength spectral decomposition of
the SZE and the bright background galaxy MMJ065837−5557.0,
with AzTEC observations only at 1.1 mm, we can estimate the level
of the thermal SZE contamination in two independent ways.
First, taking advantage of the spatial resolution of the AzTEC
observations and assuming that the SZE emission from the cluster
is smooth on spatial scales smaller than that of the AzTEC beam
(30 arcsec ), we can spatially filter the AzTEC map and fit for the
1.1 mm flux consistent with only point-source emission (as discussed in Section 2.1). Alternatively, as described below, we can
model the SZE emission from the Bullet Cluster with a simple
model for the electron temperature and density distribution to estimate the 1.1 mm flux from the SZE at the position of the AzTEC
point source.
The derivation of the intensity of the SZE and its observed properties at radio to millimetre-wavelengths have been reviewed extensively (Sunyaev & Zeldovich 1980; Birkinshaw 1999; Carlstrom,
Holder & Reese 2002; Birkinshaw & Lancaster 2007). Briefly, con
C
sidering only the thermal distortion, the frequency-dependent SZE
is given by the simple expression
δIν = I0 [g(x)y],
(2)
where I 0 = 2 (kB T 0 ) /(hc) and T 0 = 2.725K is the mean temperature of the CMB. The Comptonization parameter, y, equal to
the optical depth times the fractional energy gain of each scattering
event, is
kB σT
(3)
ne Te dl.
y=
me c2
3
2
Finally, the dimensionless spectral function, g(x), where x = h
ν/kB T 0 , describes the frequency dependence of the thermal SZE.
Neglecting relativistic corrections, g(x) has the form
x 4 ex
ex + 1
g(x) = x
x x
−4 .
(4)
(e − 1)2
e −1
Since the intensity of SZE is dependent only on the line-of-sight
integral of the electron pressure through the Bullet Cluster, we
describe below our estimations for the local value of the electron
temperature and density at the position of MMJ065837−5557.0.
It is common to adopt an isothermal assumption within the cluster density distribution (typically a β model), or at least a weak
radial dependence on the temperature of the intracluster medium
within the virial radius (Irwin, Bregman & Evrard 1999). Support
for this assumption is also found in hydrodynamical simulations
(Eke, Navarro & Frenk 1998; Pearce et al. 2000). In the case of the
Bullet Cluster, Markevitch et al. (2002) have provided a temperature map that shows a gas–temperature variation across the merging
clusters between 10–24 keV, ignoring the concentrated cold spot or
‘bullet’ (with a temperature of 6–7 keV). The spatial resolution of
AzTEC (30 arcsec FWHM beamsize) is sufficient to estimate that
the local temperature of the X-ray-emitting gas, at the position of
MMJ065837−5557.0, is 14–16 keV (regions f–g in fig. 2 of Markevitch et al. 2002), or similar to the average cluster temperature of
∼15 keV.
Whilst the density profile of the gas to the west of the main
X-ray peak (in the direction of the ‘bullet’) requires the inclusion of a
shock front and an additional component to represent the lower mass
merging cluster, the situation is less complicated to the east of the
X-ray peak brightness, in the direction of MMJ065837−5557.0.
The local electron density, ne , in the eastern hemisphere (at the
position of MMJ065837−5557.0) is calculated using a singlecomponent spherically symmetric β model (β = 0.7) centred at the
primary peak of the observed X-ray surface-brightness distribution.
We begin by considering a range for the total cluster mass, M tot =
0.8–1.9 × 1015 M (Clowe et al. 2006; Vikhlinin et al. 2006). Following Kay, Liddle & Thomas (2001) we then assume that the ICM
is fully ionized, with a helium mass fraction of 0.24, such that ne =
0.88ρ/mH , where mH is the mass of a hydrogen atom. The baryonic
mass density, ρ, is calculated assuming a global baryon fraction
f b = M b /M tot = 0.06 h−3/2 (Ettori & Fabian 1999). The exercise
was then repeated assuming an alternative β model centred on the
peak of the weak-lensing signal from the main cluster that dominates the total cluster mass (Section 3.3). Finally, provided that the
electron temperature, Te , is similar to the X-ray gas temperature,
we determine that the contribution of the SZE at 1.1 mm at the position of the AzTEC point-source MMJ065837−5557.0 is ∼1.5–
4.2 mJy beam−1 . This estimated range of underlying flux due to the
SZE is consistent with what we measure directly from the extended
component in the spatially resolved 1.1 mm emission at the position
of the AzTEC point source (Section 2.1).
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optical brightness of galaxies A and B, this scenario can be easily
tested via a spectroscopic determination of their redshifts.
Finally, we mention that our gravitational-lens model also predicts a third counterpart to the multiply imaged background
source with only a modest magnification factor of 3–5 at
06h 58m 33.s 5, −55d 57m 29s (J2000). A faint red IRAC source is seen
at this position with no optical counterpart. We do not discuss the
possibility of this third source further, except to mention that it is
marginally consistent with the orientation of the slightly extended
profile of the millimetre emission from MMJ065837−5557.0.
Regardless of the degree of association between the IR and optical
sources, the IRAC photometric redshifts are well-within the redshift
distribution of the blank-field SMG population, and thus we believe
that the most plausible explanation for the millimetre-wavelength
flux is that (1) the AzTEC source MMJ065837−5557.0 lies behind
the Bullet Cluster, (2) it is lensed by the Bullet Cluster and (3)
it is a product of the combined emission of the IRAC objects C
and D. This scenario also naturally explains the approximate equal
distance from the AzTEC centroid position to the two IR galaxies.
In the absence of a detailed lensing model in the vicinity of the
AzTEC source and/or spectroscopic confirmation, we assume in
the remainder of this paper that both pairs of optical/IR sources
(A/C and B/D) are associated with MMJ065837−5557.0, which is
a lensed background SMG.
A bright mm-galaxy beyond the Bullet Cluster
3.7 The intrinsic luminosity of MMJ065837−5557.0 – a dusty
high-redshift LIRG
The magnification map of the Bullet Cluster by Mehlert et al. (2001)
suggests a robust and conservative lower limit of A = 20 for the
amplification of MMJ065837−5557.0. More typical amplifications
of A = 1– 3 have been found for SMGs behind low-z massive clusters
(Ledlow et al. 2002; Knudsen et al. 2006). It is the proximity of
MMJ065837−5557.0 to a lensing caustic line that makes this such
an exceptional case. The implication for such a large magnification
is that the AzTEC source has an intrinsic flux of S1.1 mm < 0.68 mJy,
after subtraction of the expected contribution from the SunyaevZel’dovich effect. This is a factor of >3 lower than the flux of the
faintest blank-field SMGs detected in the full 225 arcmin2 AzTEC
field towards the Bullet Cluster (which occupies only the central
12 arcmin2 ).
Assuming that the AzTEC point source is a background galaxy
at z ∼ 2.7, then intrinsic millimetre-wavelength brightness of
MMJ065837−5557.0, after the corrections for the SZE contribution and amplification, corresponds to a far-IR (FIR) luminosity
of <1012 L . Given the relative insensitivity of the millimetrewavelength flux density as a function of redshift, this is a robust result provided that the AzTEC source lies in the redshift range ∼1 <
z < 8. Hence, rather than having discovered an extremely rare example of a hyperluminous dust-obscured galaxy, MMJ065837−5557.0
is more typical of a LIRG with LFIR ≤ 1011 –1012 L in the highredshift Universe, with a star-formation rate (SFR) in the range 5–
50 M yr−1 (Kennicutt 1998).
The conservative lower limit on the magnification implies that
even a more modest SFR may be appropriate, closer to that of only
a mildly active starburst galaxy. This would support the scenario
in which the millimetre emission arises from a distant starburst
with patchy dust obscuration and a low dust content, which in turn
increases the likelihood of detecting both the optical and IR emission from the source (i.e. A/C and/or B/D). Only high-resolution
(sub)millimetre interferometric imaging of MMJ065837−5557.0,
to unambiguously identify the counterpart(s), combined with spectroscopic measurements to determine the redshifts (and possibly
velocity dispersion) of all optical and IR components (A, B, C, D)
will allow progress in understanding the nature of this potentially
rare example of a low to intermediate luminosity millimetre-selected
galaxy in the high-redshift Universe.
C
4 CONCLUSIONS
Sensitive continuum observations at 1.1 mm with the AzTEC camera installed on the 10-m diameter Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment have been made towards the Bullet Cluster. An
extremely bright point source (MMJ065837−5557.0) is detected
with an observed flux density at 1.1 mm of 15.9 mJy. The centroid
position of MMJ065837−5557.0 lies close to the largest massdensity peak in the weak-lensing map of Clowe et al. (2006).
Archival IR (Spitzer IRAC) images show the presence of two red
sources, separated by ∼8 arcsec (or ≤30 kpc in the source plane),
that lie within the positional error of MMJ065837−5557.0, and that
also straddle the critical magnification line (i.e. a region of extreme
amplifications) of Mehlert et al. (2001). The Spitzer IRAC colours
of these two sources are typical of high-z SMGs, and photometricredshifts place both sources at z ∼ 2.7 ± 0.2. The proximity of
HST-identified optical sources to both of these Spitzer IRAC galaxies leaves open 2 possibilities: (1) that each optical/IR pair are individual galaxies undergoing close interaction or (2) that each pair is
in fact only one galaxy with a complex morphology of patchy dust
obscuration.
Having rejected a Galactic origin and a cluster member origin as
the source of the AzTEC emission, the above conditions suggest that
MMJ065837−5557.0 is a background source associated with one
or both of the red IR Spitzer sources, and is strongly lensed by this
massive cluster. The agreement in the location of the critical line in
the magnification maps of Mehlert et al. (2001), Bradaˇc et al. (2006)
and Gonzalez et al. (2008) for this cluster place a strong conservative
limit of >20 for the magnification of the millimetre emission from
MMJ065837−5557.0. There exist many similarities between this
example of an extremely bright millimetre source and the possibility
of gravitationally lensed interacting galaxies that produce a bright
submillimetre arc in MS0451.6−0305 (Borys et al. 2004).
After subtracting the contribution (≤25 per cent) due to the extended SZE at 1.1 mm from the total AzTEC continuum flux of
MMJ065837−5557.0, we estimate that the intrinsic (i.e. demagnified) FIR luminosity of MMJ065837−5557.0 is <1012 L provided the source lies in the redshift range ∼1 < z < 8. Hence,
MMJ065837−5557.0 is representative of the fainter population
of star-forming galaxies that is undetectable, without the assistance of lensing, with the current generation of small single-dish
(sub)millimetre telescopes due to source confusion and lack of sensitivity. Until the commissioning of the next generation of larger
millimetre-wavelength facilities (e.g. LMT, ALMA) the only opportunity to study this fainter luminosity class of IR galaxies, that
dominate the production of the cosmic IR background, is to take advantage of the significant amplification that exist towards the critical
magnification lines of massive nearby clusters.
AC K N OW L E D G M E N T S
We thank the referee for the thorough reading and suggestions to
improve the paper, and also Jack Hughes for useful comments. We
recognize and thank Douglas Clowe for valuable discussions during the early preparation of this paper. This study was financially
supported by MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas No. 15071202, by the Grant-in-Aid for the Scientific
Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No.
19403005), by NSF Grant no. 0540852, and CONACYT grants no.
50786 and 60878. Some of the data analyzed in this paper were
obtained from the Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope
Science Institute (MAST) and the Spitzer Space Telescope archive.
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We therefore conclude that the 1.1 mm flux density of
MMJ065837−5557.0 due solely to continuum emission from a
lensed high-redshift SMG is in the range 12–14 mJy. An analysis of
the detected extended AzTEC emission towards the Bullet Cluster
(Ezawa et al. in preparation) will provide more accurate information
on the location of MMJ065837−5557.0 with respect to the peak of
the SZE, and consequently a more accurate measurement of the
point-source contamination to the integrated SZE (a potential problem for lower resolution experiments) than the estimate described
above.
Assuming a range of spectral indices α ∼ 3–4 (where Fν ∝
ν α ) and dust temperatures to describe the rest-frame SED of
MMJ065837−5557.0 in the millimetre regime, we also determine
that MMJ065837−5557.0 is too faint to be detected in the lowresolution (FWHM ∼ 4.5 arcmin) ACBAR observations at 1.4 mm
given the published noise level of 30 μK (Gomez et al. 2004). This
is consistent with the lack of comment by Gomez et al. about a
detectable signal at the null frequency of the SZE.
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STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in
Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5−26555. The Spitzer
Space Telescope is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA.
This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System.
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